mmmarcin - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Government-orchestrated? Please (Score 1) 172

by mmmarcin on Tuesday May 29, 2007 @04:34PM (#19313803) Attached to: The Real Impact of the Estonian Cyberattack

You know, in Russia "Kremlin operation" is like one bad guy telling second one to attack them. And the right people will do it. And there is nobody in the whole country to pin them. And, anyway, electorate, knowing, would like it... Think of mafia. Is mafia not well organized? "Russian government" is just name.

And about estonian products: it *is* political issue, not market one.

Disney - Blu-ray's Fair Weather Friend 138

Posted by Zonk on Saturday May 12, 2007 @01:35AM from the pick-a-side dept.

An anonymous reader writes "One day they're out, the next day they're in. Back in March, Disney CEO Bob Iger seemed to indicate that his company (which has exclusively backed Blu-ray since the start of the high-def format war) was on the verge of supporting *both* high-def formats. What a difference a couple of months of good press for Blu-ray makes: this week, the CEO reversed his earlier position, saying 'the single greatest thing we can do right now is to not waffle, but to be very, very blunt about it, (and) to continue our support of Blu-ray because we sense a real advantage.'"

Submission + - Does Wikipedia Suck on Science Stories?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11, 2007 @09:39PM

An anonymous reader writes: An editor from Wired writes on his blog that Wikipedia sucks for science stories — not because they are inaccurate, but because of what he calls the "tragedy of the uncommon": Too many experts writing about subjects in ways that no non-expert can understand. Would this be the dumbing-down of Wikipedia — or would it be a better resource for everyone?

Could Global Warming Make Life on Earth Better? 923

Posted by Zonk on Friday May 11, 2007 @12:43PM from the makes-for-lots-of-swimming-opportunities dept.

mikee805 writes "A lengthy article in Spiegel explores the possibility that global warming might make life on Earth better, not just for humans, but all species. The article argues that 'worst-case scenarios' are often the result of inaccurate simulations made in the 1980s. While climate change is a reality, as far as the article is concerned, some planning and forethought may mean that more benefits than drawbacks will result from higher temperatures. From the article:'The medical benefits of higher average temperatures have also been ignored. According to Richard Tol, an environmental economist, "warming temperatures will mean that in 2050 there will be about 40,000 fewer deaths in Germany attributable to cold-related illnesses like the flu." Another widespread fear about global warming -- that it will cause super-storms that could devastate towns and villages with unprecedented fury -- also appears to be unfounded. Current long-term simulations, at any rate, do not suggest that such a trend will in fact materialize.'"

Submission + - MySpace photo sagas continue

Submitted by gwoodrow on Monday May 07, 2007 @01:42PM

gwoodrow writes: We've all heard the "fired because of myspace" issues, where a simple blog or picture gets someone canned. But even as it's getting worse, the targets are fighting back:

"Teacher in training Stacy Snyder was denied her education degree on the eve of graduation when Millersville University apparently found pictures on her MySpace page 'promoting underage drinking.' As a result, the 27-year-old mother of two had her teaching certificate withheld and was granted an English degree instead. In response, Snyder has filed a Federal lawsuit against the Pennsylvania university asking for her education diploma and certificate along with $75,000 in damages."

The offending picture? A picture from halloween 2005 of Stacy in a pirate outfit drinking from a cup.

Jobs to Labels- Lose the DRM & We'll Talk Price 459

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday May 07, 2007 @12:30PM from the ten-bucks-a-gig dept.

eldavojohn writes "Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been talking smack about DRM and has recently issued a verbal offer to major music lables stating that if they are willing to lose the DRM, he'd be willing to raise his 99 cent price for those iTunes songs. These tracks (such as the recent EMI deal) would also have better sound quality & cost about 30 cents more."

Submission + - The Ability to "controllably Couple qubits"

Submitted by Timogen on Monday May 07, 2007 @12:21PM

Timogen writes: While large-scale quantum computers remain in the domain of science fiction, a joint team from Japan announced Thursday that it has been able to take a small but crucial step in pursuit of this advanced goal. http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007 /05/quantumcoupling NEC, the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, or RIKEN, and the Japan Science and Technology Agency, published a paper in the May 4 issue of the journal Science, outlining the ability to "controllably couple qubits." In classical computer science, bits — or binary digits — hold data encoded as ones and zeros. In quantum computing, data is measured in qubits, or quantum bits. As such, a qubit can have three possible states — one, zero or a "superposition" of one and zero. This unique property theoretically makes quantum computing able to solve large-scale calculations that would dwarf today's supercomputers. But qubits in isolation are not very useful. It's only when they can be connected to one another that large-scale processing becomes possible.

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